Established in 2009 Under the Authority of North Carolina General Statute 15A-404

Charlotte police are still looking for the person who used a taser to rob a Ballantyne convenience store earlier this month.

The robbery took place inside the 7-11 at 5200 Piper Station Drive off Rea Road just south of Interstate 485 around 3:40 a.m. September 12, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department report.

Police said a man walked into the store and stole a carton of Newport cigarettes valued at $48 using a taser against one of the store employees. The man then left in an unknown car traveling north and has not been seen since.

If you have any information about this incident you are asked to call CMPD at 704-336-7600.

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A 51-year-old man serving life sentences for murder and robbery who escaped while working on a prison farm was captured Thursday, officials said.

The Department of Public Safety said in a release that James Ladd left his prison job Sunday outside Tillery prison in Halifax County. Ladd was operating a tractor on the farm. Officers found it abandoned just before noon Sunday. Ladd was captured by corrections officers and Alcohol Law Enforcement agents about 10 miles from the prison farm, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety.

“Officers and agents were following up on a tip along NC Highway 125 near Scotland Neck, when a passing motorist stopped and alerted them about a man he had just seen running from the woods toward a nearby home.

The teams immediately responded to that home and began a search of the property around it,” the NCDPS said in a statement. Ladd was found crouched down in a garage at the house. Ladd was convicted in 1981 for the shooting deaths of two men on a Yadkin County farm.

Tillery is a minimum security prison. It’s unclear why Ladd was housed at the minimum security prison. According to the agency’s Web site, Ladd’s had seven infractions since 1981, most recently in 2010 for tobacco use. Prior to that, he disobeyed orders in 1992. Ladd will face charges for escape from prison and other prison disciplinary charges.

The three cars – all Honda Civics – were reported stolen Wednesday morning within nine miles of each other in the University City area and east Charlotte.

In one case, a 1999 Civic was reported missing from the Barrington Place apartment complex off East W.T. Harris Boulevard.

A man told Charlotte-Mecklenburg police that he left his apartment Wednesday morning to go to work and discovered his car missing. Police didn’t find any glass where the vehicle was parked, according to a police report.

Another man told police that his 1993 Civic was stolen around 4:30 a.m. on Ruth Drive near The Plaza and Milton Road.

A third vehicle, a 2000 Civic, was reported stolen between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. on Copper Creek Court, just off Albemarle Road.

But one of the cars had a LoJack transmitter, which emits a signal when activated.

Police said the device allowed investigators on Wednesday to track the car to a home on Langley Road, located in a neighborhood off Shamrock road in east Charlotte.

When officers arrived, they discovered the three stolen cars in the backyard, police said.

Police arrested Rethanachan Em of Charlotte, charging him with three counts of larceny of a motor vehicle. He remained in Mecklenburg jail Thursday under a $30,000 bond.

Anyone with additional information about the case is asked to call the Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600.

With 12 dead and 58 wounded, the July 20th shooting at the Cinemark Century 16 Theater in Aurora, Colorado was sure to result in a lawsuit. On Friday, the first suit was announced, claiming Cinemark has “primary responsibility.” The theater did have responsibility for the attack, but not for the reasons that the lawyers bringing the case think.

The lawyer bringing the suit, Attorney Marc Bern, with the New York city law firm of Napoli, Bern, Ripka and Scholonik, suggested the theater should have had security guards the night of the attack. Yet, checking bags or metal detectors at the front of the theater that night wouldn’t have prevented the attack. The killer brought his guns in through an emergency backdoor.

Armed security guards at movie theaters are rare in low crime areas, such as Aurora, especially on less crowded weeknights. And, with an audience fleeing the theater, armed guards may have experienced difficulty getting quickly inside.

So why did the killer pick the Cinemark theater? You might think that it was the one closest to the killer’s apartment. Or, that it was the one with the largest audience.

Yet, neither explanation is right. Instead, out of all the movie theaters within 20 minutes of his apartment showing the new Batman movie that night, it was the only one where guns were banned. In Colorado, individuals with permits can carry concealed handgun in most malls, stores, movie theaters, and restaurants. But private businesses can determine whether permit holders can carry guns on their private property.

Most movie theaters allow permit holders carrying guns. But the Cinemark movie theater was the only one with a sign posted at the theater’s entrance.

A simple web search and some telephone calls reveal how easily one can find out how Cinemark compared to other movie theaters. According to mapquest.com and movies.com, there were seven movie theaters showing “The Dark Knight Rises” on July 20th within 20 minutes of the killer’s apartment at 1690 Paris St, Aurora, Colorado. At 4 miles and an 8-minute car ride, the Cinemark’s Century Theater wasn’t the closest. Another theater was only 1.2 miles (3 minutes) away.

There was also a theater just slightly further away, 10 minutes. It is the “home of Colorado’s largest auditorium,” according to their movie hotline greeting message. The potentially huge audience ought to have been attractive to someone trying to kill as many people as possible. Four other theaters were 18 minutes, two at 19 minutes, and 20 minutes away. But all of those theaters allowed permitted concealed handguns.

So why would a mass shooter pick a place that bans guns? The answer should be obvious, though it apparently is not clear to the media – disarming law-abiding citizens leaves them as sitting ducks.

Concealed carry is much more frequent than many people believe. With over 4 percent of the adult population in Colorado having concealed handgun permits, a couple hundred adults in Cinemark’s movie theater #9 means that there is an extremely high probability that at least one adult would have a permit.

Unfortunately, some have still not figured this out. A manager at the Harkins Northfield 18 five miles from the killer’s apartment told me, the theater changed its policy and started banning concealed handguns following the Cinemark attack.

The recent Colorado and Sikh Temple shootings are by no means the first times that killers targeted gun-free zones. We have witnessed mass public shootings in such places as the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska and the Trolley Square Mall in Salt Lake City, Utah. In both cases, guns were banned at those particular malls, but not at other similar venues that allowed guns and were spared. With just one single exception, the attack in Tucson last year, every public shooting since at least 1950 in the U.S. in which more than three people have been killed has taken place where citizens are not allowed to carry guns.

Gun-free zones are a magnet for those who want to kill many people quickly. Even the most ardent gun control advocate would never put “Gun-Free Zone” signs on their home. Let’s stop finally putting them elsewhere.

A 10-year-old boy in Belligham, WA saved his mother’s life after she was attacked by a man renting a room at their home recently. Police say the boy ran and got his pump action BB gun and shot the man at least four times.

“He assaulted the female while she was in bed tried to strangle her,” said Office Mark Young with the Bellingham Police Department, “and during the commotion her young son came to her rescue.”

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NEWPORT, N.C. – A nationwide Amber Alert has been issued for a missing Newport girl.

The Carteret County Sheriff’s Office says 12-year-old Abigale Lefevers was last seen by her father Sunday night.

Authorities say they believe she may be with 38-year-old Timothy Newman, a registered sex offender, who was also last seen Sunday night. Investigators say Newman has had contact with Lefevers over the past several weeks.

They’re believed to be traveling in a red 1998 Chrysler Sebring with North Carolina license plate AKT-6534. It was last seen on U.S. 17 southbound near the South Carolina border.

Lefevers is about 90 pounds and was last wearing Nike shoes and carrying a pink backpack with peace signs. Anyone who may know where she or Newman can be found should call the Carteret County Sheriff’s Office at (252) 504-4800.

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Angel, a local rescue-turned-therapy dog, is one of four national finalists in the Purina Pro Plan Rally to Rescue Tales of Greatness Contest.

Angel and her seven pups were starving to death and left to die in their owner’s backyard until S.A.F.E. Animal Haven of Matthews rescued them all. Now, if she wins, Purina will donate $5,000 in food to S.A.F.E. Animal Haven in Matthews.

“Our dogs come from all over–from the side of the roads, we’ve stopped and picked them up, we’ve gotten them out of shelters, we have calls of neglected or abused animals, we’ve gone and helped out with puppy mills–you name it. They come from everywhere,” said S.A.F.E Animal Haven co-founder Beth Brown.

Angel came into her new home exhausted, limping and skinny, with severe heart worms. The vet found air pellets inside her abdominal cavity during her spay operation, so there it was obvious she had been shot. You can’t tell any of that when you meet her today. Despite all she has been through, her new owners said the love just pours out of her eyes. Angel has thrived since her rescue.

Just one year later, she is a certified A.K.C. Canine Good Citizen and she’s certified with Therapy Dogs International. Her wagging tail and sloppy kisses delight the senior citizens at The Laurels in the Village at Carolina Place.

“Angel gives back in so many ways, so much more than I feel like we’ve given to her, constantly, so that’s why she deserves to win,” said her new owner, Marie Boucher.

She may not know it, but Angel has a legacy. At least one of her puppies–he happens to be our dog, Rooster–just might have a future in pet therapy.

Voting closes October 24.

To vote for Angel, copy and paste the link below into your web-browser: